Whenever I use oranges in a savory dish (either flesh, juice or peel), it is almost always in a recipe that is Asian in origin or character. Indeed, the only western dish of this type that I can remember cooking is the well-known French specialty, Duck a l’Orange. Today’s feature is pretty much western in flavor but it is considerably less ‘upscale’ than the traditional duck dish. In fact, it might very well be thought of as a ‘Cheapo’ or ‘Poor-man’s a l’Orange’ as it is made with ground beef and uses Marmalade in the sauce.

I had actually been thinking for some time about trying marmalade in a Chinese-style dry-fried beef dish (and I will get around to it sometime) but I wanted to use up the sauce I had left over from my Baffin-Island Beef recipe from the previous week. Using it as a base for an ‘a l’Orange’ type sauce seemed like an interesting idea, hence the inspiration for the present experiment. You will note that, in the Ingredients list, I call for a pint of ‘Brown Sauce’… While I am using the ‘gravy’ from my ‘Baffin Island’ pot roast recipe, any sort of thickened beef or chicken stock sort of sauce will do nicely in its stead…

Ingredients

1lb lean Ground Beef;

1 pint Brown Sauce (or beef gravy etc.)

2 Scallions, finely chopped;

1 small Celery Stalk, finely chopped;

1 small Carrot, finely chopped;

1 Tbsp. Garlic Salt;

2 Tbsp. Worcestershire Sauce;

4 Tbsp. Marmalade;

1 Tbsp. Sugar;

3 Tbsp. Sherry.

Mix together the ground meat and the next five ingredients, stirring well to achieve a nice, smooth texture.

Form the meat into 6 or 8 generous sized meatballs and then brown them in the oven at 475 degrees for about 20 minutes or so.

Heat a pan over moderate heat and melt the sugar and marmalade in the sherry.

Add the sauce and, if necessary, reduce to thicken.

Finally, add the balls and simmer over moderate heat until everything is hot and the balls are cooked all the way through. Serve hot garnished with chopped scallion, if desired. This could go nicely with plain rice or even garlic mashed potato and a green veggie…